Concept explainers
At the Hard Rock Cafe, like many organizations, project management is a key planning took With Hard Rock’s constant growth in hotels and cafes, remodeling of existing cafes,
“Without Microsoft Project,” says Hard Rock Vice-President Chris Tomasso, “there is no way to keep so many people on the same page.” Tomasso is in charge of the Rockfest event, which is attended by well over 100,000 enthusiastic fans. The challenge is pulling it off within a tight 9-month planning horizon. As the event approaches, Tomasso devotes greater energy to its activities. For the first 3 months, Tomasso updates his Microsoft Project charts monthly. Then at the 6-month mark, he updates his progress weekly. At the 9-month mark, he checks and corrects his schedule twice a week.
Early in the project management process, Tomasso identifies 10 major tasks (called level-2 activities in a work breakdown structure, or WBS):† talent booking, ticketing, marketing/PR, online promotion, television, show production, travel, sponsorships, operations, and merchandising Using a WBS, each of these is further divided into a series of subtasks. Table 3.8 identifies 26 of the major activities and subactivities, their immediate predecessors, and time estimates. Tomasso enters all these into the Microsoft Project software.‡ Tomasso alters the Microsoft Project document and the time line as the project progresses. “It’s okay to change it as long as you keep on track,” he states.
† The level-1 activity is the Rockfest concert itself.
‡ There are actually 127 activities used by Tomasso: the list is abbreviated for this case study.
TABLE 3.8 Some of the Major Activities and Subactivities in the Rockfest Plan
The day of the rock concert itself is not the end of the project planning. “It’s nothing but surprises. A band not being able to get to the venue because of traffic jams is a surprise, but an ‘anticipated’ surprise. We had a helicopter on stand-by ready to fly the band in,” says Tomasso.
On completion of Rocktest in July, Tomasso and his team have a 3-month reprieve before starting the project planning process again.
4. Why is a work breakdown structure useful in a project such as this? Take the 26 activities and break them into what you think should be level-2, level-3, and level-4 tasks.
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Operations Management
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- Draw a network representation of the project (nodes = activities, arrows = precedence constraints). Provide early start/early finish as well as late start/late finish times for all activities. What is the duration of the project, and which tasks are on the critical path? Task Description Duration Predecessors A Project Planning 16 days - B Evaluation Existing Apps 20 days - C Define Value Proposition 12 days B D Define User Interface 18 days B E Define Technology Requirements 22 days C and D F Document Requirements 14 days E G Develop Architecture 35 days A and F H Creation Code Design 18 days G I Roadmap Feature Development 12 days G J User Interface Development 74 days H and I K Code Development 92 days H and I L Release Testing 32 days J and K M Get User Feedback 22 days L N Bug Fixing 28 days L O Marketing Plan 54 days E P Release Product 5 days M, N and Oarrow_forwardThe following represents a project with known activity times. All times are in weeks.Activity ImmediatePredecessor TimeA - 4B - 3C - 1D B 2E A 3F C, E 5G D 3H F 2I G, H 3J I 6K I 4L J 21) Create a CPM Network. 2) What is the total project time? 3) What activities are on the critical path?4) Compute the slack time for all non-critical activities. 5) What is the latest possible start time for activity D? Please show all work in excel and how you did it, Thank you!arrow_forwardIn 2017, Aurecon was appointed by the City of Ekurhuleni to design and construct rail lineunderpasses that are attractive, safe and user-friendly for pedestrians and cyclists, together withthe associated safety infrastructure. The project was completed in February 2019 at a cost of R50 million with over 5,000 resourcesinvolved over the 2-year project.Q.1.1 Based on the above project information, discuss any Five (5) project constraints. Q.1.2 Projects are different from operations, state any Five (5) project attributes.arrow_forward
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- Please complete the ES, EF, LS, LF, and slack for the project below. Activity Description Duration (weeks) Immediate predecessors ES EF LS LF Slack A Contract negotiation with selected vendors 3 - B Decide on the best data extraction platform and begin software coding 5 C C Contract negotiation with package and label manufacturers 2 - D Screen and hire transportation personnel 3 - E Market logistic arrangements 1 A F Organize advertising brochures and campaign print ads 4 D G Logistical arrangements for sales representatives 1 E H Target market final arrangements 3 C, D I Finish the final production process 5 F, H J Hire additional sales staff, and make sales demonstration arrangements 4 E, B, H K Distribute media advertising packages and arrange for commercial distribution 5 G L Arrange sales tracking and monitoring 2 Farrow_forwardUse the following project status information to calculate each of the requested EVM numbers below (a-i).The project status is reported at the end of week 13. Task Budget Cost Budget Duration Status as of Week 13 A $5,000 2 Weeks 100 percent complete $5,000B $8,500 3 Weeks 100 percent complete $9,000C $15,000 4 Weeks 75 percent complete $14,000D $10,000 4 Weeks 50 percent complete $9,000 E $12,000 4 Weeks Not startedF $15,000 5 Weeks Not started a. Planned Valuedb. Actual costc. Cost varianced. Schedule variancee. Cost performance indexf. Schedule performance indexg. Budget at completionh. Estimation to completei. Estimation at completionarrow_forwardDraw the Network Diagram and determine the Critical Path and duration of the project (in days).Activity Duration (days) Predecessor(s)A 2 -B 2 AC 4 AD 1 BE 3 C, DF 2 C, DG 4 EH 5 F, Garrow_forward
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